Watson No Longer Blackman Football Coach

After three season, David Watson is no longer the head coach of Blackman High football. The decision came Monday from Principal Dr. Leisa Justus.

Under his leadership, the Blaze bolstered a 28-10 record and were in the playoff all three years he was the head coach.

Watson, who prepped at Oakland went on to play for Boots Donnelly at MTSU. He was an assistant coach at Riverdale, then was on the first staff at Blackman as an assistant under David Alsup (who was his coach at Oakland). After that, Watson went on to become the first head football coach at Siegel in 2003 before going back to Blackman as an assistant under Philip Shadowens in 2010.

Shadowens was fired after an investigation by Rutherford County officials, which eventually led Tennessee Comptroller investigators to find the school's football booster program used a separate bank account to give cash and gift cards for its coaches. Shadowens, in a statement issued after the findings were released in 2016, maintained there was no intentional violation of policy by him or the boosters. He's currently the head coach at William Blount in East Tennessee.

Watson was named interim head coach after Shadowens' departure. He was named head coach in March of 2015.

Blackman finished 9-and-3 this season, with two of its losses to Oakland.